Reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (R-SOA) with dual buried heterostructure

ABSTRACT

Provided are a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (R-SOA) and a superluminescent diode (SLD). The R-SOA includes: a substrate; an optical waveguide including a lower clad layer, an active layer independent of the polarization of light, and an upper clad layer sequentially stacked on the substrate, the optical waveguide comprising linear, curved, and tapered waveguide areas; and a current blocking layer formed around the optical waveguide to block a flow of current out of the active layer, wherein the linear and curved waveguide areas have a single buried hetero (BH) structure, and the tapered waveguide area has a dual BH structure.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No.10-2006-0124135, filed on Dec. 7, 2006, in the Korean IntellectualProperty Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in itsentirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This work was supported by the IT R&D program ofMIC/IITA.[2005-S-051-02, Photonic device integrated module for opticalaccess network]

The present invention relates to a semiconductor optical amplifier(SOA), and more particularly, to a reflective SOA (R-SOA) and asuperluminescent diode (SLD) having low operating and thresholdcurrents.

2. Description of the Related Art

An optical line terminal (OLT) and an optical network unit (ONU) used ina Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive Optical Network (WDM-PON)have several types of light sources. According to a recently announcedpaper in IEEE PTL, vol. 18, no. 13, pp. 1436-1438, an OLT using adistributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD), which oscillates in a singlemode, and an ONU using a reflective-semiconductor optical amplifier(R-SOA), which depends on the polarization of the light, have been usedto perform two-way communications of 1.25 Gbp/s or more.

A high-priced DFB-LD matching with a WDM channel is required to bereplaced with a low-priced light source in order to lower a price of aWDM-PON. External cavity lasers (ECL), which can be manufactured at lowcost, attract attention due to the above requirement. In such an ECL, amulti-channel light source can be manufactured on a single substrate.Thus, lots of research into ECLs has been conducted. An ECL has astructure in which a grating is formed at a silica waveguide, and asemiconductor laser as a light source is hybrid integrated. The ECL mustnot oscillate so that reflectivity of an emission surface of thesemiconductor laser as the light source of the ECL is 0.1% or less.Also, the ECL must be a device having a high gain at a low operatingcurrent. Fabry-Perot laser diodes (FP-LD) and superluminescent diodes(SLD) are available as light sources satisfying above-describedconditions.

An anti-reflection (AR) coating of 0.1% or less is formed on a surfaceto reduce reflectivity of an emission surface of the FP-LD. Also, ahigh-reflection (HR) coating is formed on an opposite surface to obtaina high gain. For example, the Japanese NTT group manufacturesmulti-channel ECLs using FP-LD on which an AR coating and an HR coatingare formed. However, in general, it is very difficult to form an ARcoating of only 0.1% or less on an emission surface of a FP-LD in orderto prevent oscillation. Also, yield is low.

A superluminescent diode (SLD) is a light source which can replace theAR coated FP-LD. An active layer or an optical waveguide is inclined atan angle of 7° or 10° in a general SLD to reduce reflectivity of anemission surface of the SLD. In this case, the reflectivity of theemission surface can be reduced, but the SLD is not suitable as a lightsource used for a WDM-PON due to a high threshold current and operatingcurrent. Thus, the SLD requires a light source having the samecharacteristic as an FP-LD on which an AR coating and an HR coating areformed.

Also, an R-SOA used in an ONU simply amplifies and modulatesnon-interferential light allocated to each subscriber. Thus, the R-SOAreduces noise due to a gain saturation characteristic without greatlychanging output power in spite of a slight change of a spectrumaccording to external conditions. However, such an R-SOA requires alight source consuming a small amount of power at low threshold andoperating currents to be used in a WDM-PON.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a reflective semiconductor opticalamplifier (R-SOA) and a superluminescent diode (SLD) performingsuper-high modulations of 1.25 Gbp/s using a light source and having alow current and consuming a small amount of power at a low thresholdcurrent.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided anR-SOA including: a substrate; an optical waveguide including a lowerclad layer, an active layer independent of the polarization of light,and an upper clad layer sequentially stacked on the substrate, theoptical waveguide including linear, curved, and tapered waveguide areas;and a current blocking layer formed around the optical waveguide toblock a flow of current out of the active layer, wherein the linear andcurved waveguide areas have a single buried hetero (BH) structure, andthe tapered waveguide area has a dual BH structure.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is providedan SLD including: a substrate; an optical waveguide including a lowerclad layer, an active layer dependant on the polarization of light, andan upper clad layer sequentially stacked on the substrate, the opticalwaveguide including linear, curved, and tapered waveguide areas; and acurrent blocking layer formed around the optical waveguide to block aflow of current out of the active layer, wherein the linear and curvedwaveguide areas have a single BH structure, and the tapered waveguidearea has a dual BH structure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodimentsthereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a superluminescent diode(SLD)/reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (R-SOA) 100 accordingto an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of an active area a of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 1C is a cross-sectional view of a tapered area c of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 1D is a schematic plan view of an optical waveguide of FIG. 1A;

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of an SLD/R-SOA 200 according to anotherembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of an active area a of FIG. 2A;

FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of a tapered area c of FIG. 2A; and

FIG. 2D is a schematic plan view of an optical waveguide of FIG. 2A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will now be described more fully with reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of theinvention are shown. The invention may, however, be embodied in manydifferent forms and should not be construed as being limited to theembodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided sothat this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fullyconvey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art. In thedrawings, the thicknesses of layers and regions are exaggerated forclarity. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements,and thus their description will be omitted.

In embodiments of the present invention, active layers of asuperluminescent diode (SLD) and a reflective semiconductor opticalamplifier (R-SOA) used in an optical line terminal (OLT) and an opticalnetwork unit (ONU) of a Wavelength Division Multiplexing Passive OpticalNetwork (WDM-PON) have the same structure. However, growth layers andoptical waveguides of the SLD and the R-SOA have different structures.In detail, the SLD has a multi quantum well (MQW) structure, whichreduces compressive stress and has dependence on the polarization of thelight, and the R-SOA has a bulk structure, which reduces stress and doesnot have dependence on the polarization of the light. Thus, if one ofthe SLD and the R-SOA is optimized, the optimized SLD or R-SOA may beapplied to another structure.

The following conditions must be satisfied to manufacture an SLD/R-SOAappropriate as a light source of a WDM-PON system.

An SLD/R-SOA generally has a buried hetero (BH) structure or buriedridge stripe (BRS) structure. A process of manufacturing the BHstructure is complicated. However, since the BH structure blocks a flowof current into other layers except for an active layer better than theBRS structure and thus has low current and high gain. Thus, the BHstructure is suitable in a light source of the WDM-PON system to achievethe above-mentioned object.

An end of an optical waveguide must be tapered to reduce internalreflection of the SLD/R-SOA, heighten power, and increase mode size ofradiation. If the width of the small end of the tapered end of theoptical waveguide is less than or equal to 0.2 μm, the SLD/R-SOA hasgood characteristics. However, if the tapered end is grown using the BHstructure, overgrowth is worsened at the small end of the tapered end.Thus, loss in the optical waveguide occurs. If the tapered end is madeuniform using dry etching and then undercut using wet etching to controla width of the small end of the tapered end to 0.2 μm or less so as toreduce such loss, uniform overgrowth is possible. Thus, in theabove-described, processes are consistent, and the characteristics of amanufactured optical device is also consistent. In the BRS structure,the width of the small end of the tapered end may be controlled to 0.2μm or less. However, it is difficult to block a flow of current intoother layers except for an active layer. Thus, it is difficult to obtaina low operating current and a high gain.

The tapered area lowers reflectivity from an incidence/emission surfaceof a resonator and allows light to be inclined at an angle of 7° or 15°with respect to the direction of propagation.

As the optical waveguide is inclined at a great angle, the reflectivityof the incidence/emission surface is lowered. Since loss in a curvedwaveguide is great, gain is reduced. A passive waveguide is formed underthe active layer to increase coupling efficiency of light in order tominimize the loss. Also, if a width of the passive waveguide is within arange of between 7 μm and 9 μm, a far field pattern (FFP) of radiationof guided light is inclined at an angle of 15° or less. Thus, a size ofa mode is about 3 μm.

The embodiments of the present invention provide an SLD/R-SOA suitableas a light source of a WDM-PON system satisfying the above-describedconditions.

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of an SLD/R-SOA 100 according to anembodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional viewof an active layer area a of FIG. 1A, FIG. 1C is a cross-sectional viewof a tapered area c of FIG. 1A, and FIG. 1D is a schematic plan view ofan optical waveguide of FIG. 1A. An active layer 14 is butt-coupled to atapered optical waveguide 15 to form an optical waveguide area.

Referring to FIGS. 1A through 1C, the SLD/R-SOA 100 according to thepresent embodiment has a structure in which a passive waveguide 12 isformed under the active layer 14 to reduce loss of guided light. Thisstructure is difficult to manufacture and thus is generally manufacturedas a BRS structure. However, if the structure is manufactured as a BHstructure, good characteristics can be obtained. However, in terms ofmanufacturing process, a waveguide formed by the active layer 14 and thetapered optical waveguide 15 has a different structure from aconventional waveguide due to the passive waveguide 12 formed under thetapered optical waveguide 15 to a width of between 7 μm and 9 μm. Thus,it is difficult to regrow the structure using the BH structure.

According to the present embodiment, a tapered area c which the passivewaveguide 12 is wider than the tapered optical waveguide 15 and an aread combined with the passive waveguide 12 are formed as follows. Toovercome the above-described difficulty, the tapered area c is formedusing an epitaxial wafer on which the active layer 14 and the taperedwaveguide 15 are formed by the butt-coupling method. The tapered area cis formed using a normal photolithography method. Thereafter, dryetching and wet etching are performed to form an InP layer 13 on thepassive waveguide 12. p-InP 22 and n-InP23 are grown as first currentblocking layers. Also, an optical waveguide is formed from a linearwaveguide area a to the passive waveguide 12 using an additionalphotolithography process. p-InP, n-InP, and p-InP layers 31, 32, and 33are sequentially formed as second current blocking layers. A p-InP cladlayer 33 and a p-InGaAs layer 34 as an ohmic layer are grown. Thebutt-coupling of the active layer 14 to the tapered optical waveguide 15will be described with reference to FIG. 1D.

Referring to FIGS. 1A through 1C again, the SLD/R-SOA 100 includes theInGaAsP passive waveguide layer 12, the n-InP lower clad layer 13, theactive layer 14, and the upper clad layer 33 which are sequentiallystacked on an n-InP substrate 11. The SLD/R-SOA 100 also includes thelinear waveguide area a, a curved waveguide area b, and the taperedwaveguide area c. Here, the linear and curved waveguide areas a and bhave a single BH structures, and the tapered waveguide area c has a dualBH structure. A light source having low operating and threshold currentscan be manufactured due to the BH structures of the linear, curved, andtapered waveguide areas a, b, and c.

The first and second current blocking layers and a trench 38 are formedto perform a superhigh speed modulation of 1.25 Gbp/s or more in theSLD/R-SOA 100. Here, the current blocking layer blocks the flow ofcurrent into other layers except for the active layer 14, and the trench38 has a trench shape and reduces a parasitic capacitance leaking to thesurroundings of the active layer 14. Thus, the SLD/R-SOA 100 has a goodsuperhigh speed modulation characteristic of 1.25 Gbp/s. The p-InP,n-InP, and p-InP layers 31, 32, and 33 are sequentially formed as thesecond current blocking layers. The second current blocking layers 31,32, and 33 around the optical waveguide and a portion of the substrate11 are selectively etched to form the trench 38. An anti-reflection (AR)coating 37 is formed at an end of the optical waveguide having thetrench shape, and a high-reflection (HR) coating 36 is formed at an endof the linear waveguide area a. As previously described, the activelayer 14 may have a multi quantum well (MQW) structure capable ofreducing stress in the case of an SLD, but may have a bulk structureindependent of the polarization of the light and capable of reducingstress in the case of an R-SOA.

Referring to FIG. 1D, the active layer 14 is butt-coupled to the taperedoptical waveguide 15. The butt-coupling includes dry etching a portionof an active layer, selectively wet etching the dry etched portion, andregrowing an optical waveguide portion. For example, if the active layer14 has a MQW structure with a width of 1.55 μm or a bulk structure witha width of 1.55 μm, the InGaAsP optical waveguide 15 having a width ofbetween 1.24 μm and 1.3 μm is butt-coupled. If the active layer 14 has aMQW structure with a width of 1.3 μm or a bulk structure with a width of1.3 μm, the InGaAsP optical waveguide 15 with a width of between 1.10 μmand 1.15 μm is butt-coupled. The AR coating 37 is formed on an emissionsurface of the SLD/R-SOA 100 to lower reflectivity, and the HR coating36 is formed on an opposite surface to increase gain of the SLD/R-SOA100. The SLD/R-SOA 100 includes the linear, curved, and taperedwaveguide areas a, b, and c and the passive waveguide 12 under theactive layer 14 to increase coupling efficiency of guided light so as toreduce absorption loss of light in the InP layer d outside the taperedarea c.

An interface between the active layer 14 and the tapered opticalwaveguide 15 allows light to be inclined at an angle of 7° or 15° withrespect to the direction of propagation in order to lower reflectivityfrom an incidence/emission surface. If the waveguide is inclined at agreat angle, the reflectivity from the incidence/emission surface islowered, and loss in the curved waveguide area b is great. Thus, thegain is reduced. The passive waveguide 12 is formed under the activelayer 14 to increase the coupling efficiency of the light so as tominimize the loss occurring in the curved waveguide area b.

A width of the active layer 14 is within a range of between 1 μm and 1.5μm, and the width of the tapered optical waveguide 15 tapers from therange of between 1 μm and 1.5 μm, which is the end of curved waveguidearea b and is also the end of the active layer 14, down to 0.2 μm. As aresult, a mode size can be changed. A width of the end of the taperedoptical waveguide 15 is adjusted to about 0.2 μm using undercutting ofwet etching to prevent the tapered optical waveguide 15 from beingnon-uniformly regrown. In the optical waveguide according to the presentembodiment, the linear waveguide area a has a length of 400 μm, thecurved waveguide area b has a length of 60 μm, the tapered area c has alength of 300 μm, and the area d has a length of 40 μm, wherein the aread is combined with the passive waveguide 12 through which lightadvances.

FIG. 2A is a perspective view of an SLD/R-SOA 200 according to anotherembodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional viewof an active area a of FIG. 2A, FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of atapered area c of FIG. 2A, and FIG. 2D is a schematic plan view of anoptical waveguide portion of FIG. 2A.

The SLD/R-SOA 200 according to the present embodiment has the samestructure as the SLD/R-SOA 100 of FIG. 1A except for the structure ofthe optical waveguide. In detail, the SLD/R-SOA 100 of FIG. 1A has astructure in which the active layer 14 is butt-coupled to the taperedarea c. However, the SLD/R-SOA 200 has a structure in which an activelayer 14 is formed to the tapered area c which is formed by samematerial of areas a, b. Thus, a total length of the active layer 14 is760 μm.

The SLD/R-SOA 200 is also the same as the SLD/R-SOA 100 except that theactive layer 14 is formed to the tapered area c. Thus, as in theSLD/R-SOA 100, the entire area (a, b, and c) of the optical waveguidehas a BH structure in the SLD/R-SOA 200. Thus, a light source having lowoperating and threshold currents can be manufactured. Also, a trench 38is formed beside the active layer 14 as shown in FIG. 2A to performsuperhigh speed operations. Thus, the SLD/R-SOA 200 according to thepresent embodiment has a good superhigh speed modulation characteristicof 1.25 Gbp/s or more.

As described above, in an R-SOA and an SLD according to the presentinvention, the entire area of an optical waveguide can be formed to havea BH structure. Thus, a light source having a great gain at a lowcurrent and consuming a small amount of power at a low threshold currentcan be manufactured. Furthermore, the SLD and/or R-SOA can have asuperhigh speed modulation characteristic of 1.25 Gbp/s or more.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understoodby those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form anddetails may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present invention as defined by the following claims.

1. An R-SOA (reflective semiconductor optical amplifier) comprising: asubstrate; an optical waveguide comprising a lower clad layer, an activelayer independent of the polarization of light, and an upper clad layersequentially stacked on the substrate, the optical waveguide comprisinglinear, curved, and tapered waveguide areas, the tapered waveguide areaincludes the active layer or a tapered waveguide; and first and secondcurrent blocking layers formed around the optical waveguide to block aflow of current out of the active layer, wherein the first currentblocking layers are positioned at left and right sides of at least oneof the tapered waveguide and the active layer of the tapered waveguidearea, forming a first BH (buried hetero) structure, and wherein thesecond current blocking layers are positioned at leftmost and rightmostsides of the first current blocking layers, forming a second BHstructure.
 2. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein a passive waveguide isdisposed under the active layer and the passive waveguide is taperedunder the curved waveguide area, and has a constant width in the taperedwaveguide area.
 3. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein the tapered waveguidearea includes the tapered waveguide, and the active layer isbutt-coupled to the tapered waveguide.
 4. The R-SOA of claim 1, whereinthe tapered waveguide area includes the active layer, and the activelayer is formed of a same material in the linear, curved, and taperedwaveguide areas.
 5. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein p-InP, n-InP, andp-InP layers are formed around the linear waveguide area as the secondcurrent blocking layers.
 6. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein p-InP andn-InP layers are formed around the tapered waveguide area as the firstcurrent blocking layers, and p-InP, n-InP, and p-InP layers are formedaround the tapered waveguide area as the second current blocking layers.7. The R-SOA of claim 1, further comprising a trench formed by removingportions of the first and second current blocking layers and thesubstrate.
 8. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein the active layer in thelinear and curved waveguide areas and the second current blocking layersadjacent to the active layer in the linear and curved waveguide areascollectively form a third BH structure, such that the second currentblocking layers are positioned at left and right sides of the activelayer.
 9. The R-SOA of claim 1, wherein the active layer has a bulkstructure.
 10. The R-SOA of claim 3, wherein the tapered waveguide isformed of InGaAsP.
 11. The R-SOA of claim 2, wherein the first currentblocking layers are disposed on an upper side of the passive waveguideand the second current blocking layers are disposed at left and rightsides of the passive waveguide.